GF Trumpers Rose, oh my is this BAD!

[Chuckaluck]

I just bought a bowl of GF Trumpers Rose soap and my first shave tonight was awful! The lather was thin and runny, I could not get a decent lather at all. I know how to handle soaps, because I can handle MWF! GF Trumpers is way overpriced and it is a very poor quality soap. I have no one to blame but myself though, because if I had read some reviews about it here on B and B in the first place, I never would have bought it. Ouch! The moral of the story (for me) is to read what the guys here think about a (higher priced) product, before I buy!

 

[Phog Allen]

Sorry to hear it Chuck but it seems to be the norm these days with Trumper. In an effort to salvage it you may try what some blokes have. Soak the cake in hot water for several minutes and then load it like your mother in- law bought it. It may work but I do not hold out a lot of hope.

Cheers, Todd

 

[k2clones29]

No doubt GFT is sub-par. It is possible to get an acceptable lather out of the soap, so don't write it completely off. Start with dry brush, lot of product, and add water slowly. But I do agree, GFT is resting on its laurels and the re-formulation is garbage.

 

[DukeNDuke]

I feel your pain. I bought some GFT violet on a whim and was just as disappointed as you were with your Rose. I should have read the reviews too. It's become the most expensive bar of body soap I've ever purchased!

 

[Chuckaluck]

I feel your pain. I bought some GFT violet on a whim and was just as disappointed as you were with your Rose. I should have read the reviews too. It's become the most expensive bar of body soap I've ever purchased!

The bowl is quite nice nevertheless! I bought this on a whim also, thinking you could not go wrong with one of the big 3 in English soaps (TOOB and D.R. Harris), boy was I wrong!

 

[GreekGuy]

The bowl is quite nice nevertheless! I bought this on a whim also, thinking you could not go wrong with one of the big 3 in English soaps (TOOB and D.R. Harris), boy was I wrong!

DRH, on the other hand, is fantastic. Haven't tried TOBS, but Pens, Floris, and GFT all have something in common: they can't lather

 

[Chuckaluck]

DRH, on the other hand, is fantastic. Haven't tried TOBS, but Pens, Floris, and GFT all have something in common: they can't lather

I agree! D.R. Harris is fantastic! My R.A. D. for soaps bit me on the Trumper buy!

 

[GreekGuy]

I agree! D.R. Harris is fantastic! My R.A. D. for soaps bit me on the Trumper buy!

If you like DRH, I suspect you would also like some of the hard veggie French and German soaps like Savon du Midi, Cade, Klar, Dr. Dittmar, and Calani. Well worth checking out.

 

[njpaddy]

I got a good puck of GFT Rose about a year ago and it's been one of my favorites. Not quite Harris good, but pretty close. However, I think I just got lucky and probably won't replace it when it's gone.

 

[Craig_From_Cincy]

I got a good puck of GFT Rose about a year ago and it's been one of my favorites. Not quite Harris good, but pretty close. However, I think I just got lucky and probably won't replace it when it's gone.

Paddy, you might have lucked out and got hold of a pre-2011 reformulation soap. Use it sparingly because unless Trumper changes it soaps you won't be able to replace it.

 

[.soap.]

Can anyone suggest a rose scented soap that has a spicy, old English rose smell, not just a girlie floral scent? One of my hobbies is growing roses and I love the scent of a fresh rose.

I got samples from Queen Charlotte Soaps and their Rose Otto has the perfect scent, exactly what I'm looking for, but I can't get any of QCS soaps to lather very well in my water - I get a thin, almost cushion-free lather from it. It's a damn shame because if I could get a good lather out of their Rose Otto and Cayman (bay rum) soaps, I probably wouldn't bother trying any other brand of soaps.

I tried the Rose and Cedarwood from Mike's Natural Soaps, but I don't like the cedarwood smell in any of his soaps (smells kind of like sichuan peppercorns) and it gave me a so-so lather, like most of his soaps do (except the Hungarian lavender - that one works well for me).

I just picked up some samples from Mystic Water Soaps and got a very nice lather yesterday from their Lavender Lime, but the Rosalimone (supposedly a rose-lemon combination) just smells like a generic, flowery girlie soap, nothing at all like a real rose.

I did a search for rose soaps and found a reference to Pirate's Cove soap, and a few minutes ago put in an order for their rose and 3 other soaps. At $3-4 a puck, this is a nice deal - for about the same price as I was paying several other soap sellers for a half dozen samples, I'm gettting 4 full pucks of soap. Plus it's glycerin soap and I think glycerin tends to work well in my water.

Any suggestions on a rose soap, hopefully one that smells like QCS Rose Otto?

Wisguy - you have two "must tries" that will hopefully scratch your rose itch. Both with superb lather.

1 - Klar Kabibnett - budget friendly and amazing lather. Masculin rose scent.

2 - C&S #88 - luxury product with the famous valobra lather that made tallow AOS so popular.

Good luck!

 

[k2clones29]

1 - Klar Kabibnett - budget friendly and amazing lather. Masculin rose scent.

Couldn't agree more about Klar Kabbinett. $20 for 8 ounces, great rose scent, and the performance of this soap is surreal.

 

[GreekGuy]

Couldn't agree more about Klar Kabbinett. $20 for 8 ounces, great rose scent, and the performance of this soap is surreal.

It's actually 500g, so over 1/2 a pound of soap.

The Klar is a dry, powdery rose. I wouldn't say its girly, but it is a rose. The 88 is a darker rose.

One is a steal, the other is a splurge, both are fantastic

 

[DanOK]

I had the same problem and soaking the puck in hot water helps. I found that going to my SOC boar made the difference for an acceptable face lather.

 

[FL shaver]

I got a good puck of GFT Rose about a year ago and it's been one of my favorites. Not quite Harris good, but pretty close. However, I think I just got lucky and probably won't replace it when it's gone.

This is where I am with GFT. I have used 2 pucks of Coconut and I have a couple shaves each on pucks of Violets and Rose. I think I'll enjoy them, but I haven't had any issues with the tough to lather soaps in the past.

 

[ddillas]

Very curious... I purchased a bowl of GFT Rose at the Carmel Drug Store last year in February and love it... maybe it was old stock. I normaly use my Semogue 830 for the hard soaps and it whips this stuff up in short order... same as my Tabac, Cade, or PdP... No odd gyrations, chants, dances or ritualistic steps required... just take a wet brush to it and voila! What really bothers me now, if there is some kind of problem with a new formula, is that I may not be able to replace this when it is gone... sad face...

 

[ddillas]

By the by... The Carmel Drug Store has a web site and the prices for some of the Geo F Trumper stuff is very good... Soap in wood bowl for $26.95 plus shipping... to the PDX shipping is $7.61 bringing the total in at $34.56... very reasonable for this item... the Geo F Trumper creams are $25.95 plus the same shipping for a total of 33.56... also a very good price.

http://www.carmeldrugstore.com/

 

[Crag]

I just got a Violets Bowl from Shavecreams dot com and haven't had a problem like yours. I use mainly boars and they pick up alot more product, but still crappy soap should give crappy lather no matter what, right? Well...Maybe the boar brush is what is different. Try it with a boar and see... Everybody gave the Knize Soap a bad wrap, biut for me it is Nirvana with a boar brush...a superb soap IMO!

 

[lt114]

I have two pucks of GFT: violet and rose. The violet is pretty good, but the rose is absolute garbage.

 

[JCinPA]

Of the big British products, while there is not unanimity of opinion by any means, a huge majority--I mean much larger than for most shave products--seems to have come to this conclusion about English 3T products (Trumpers, Taylor's, Truefitt & Hill) and D.R. Harris.

Realize there are always a few exceptions and YMMV, but the majority is pretty big here, I think.


For soaps D.R. Harris is fantastic, but it is also the only Brit soap of those four worth buying anymore. For creams people seem to love both Taylor's and Truefitt, almost equally with a slight edge going to Truefitt. Trumper's glory days are behind them. Pretty much most of their product is crap nowadays.

I am a huge Harris soap and TOBS cream fan. I am going to try Truefitt & Hill's rose cream when my TOBS rose is gone, though.